1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote monitor for elevator. More particularly, this invention relates to the remote monitor for elevator comprising an auxiliary power, which supplies operating power instead of main power when the main power fails, an interphone battery for an interphone provided inside the elevator carriage, a unit which monitors the running status of the elevator and transmits the running status via a public telephone line network to a monitoring center of an elevator maintenance company, and a unit which allows communication between the interphone and the monitoring center by switching ON an emergency call button provided inside the elevator carriage.
This invention further relates to a remote monitoring system for elevator having a plurality of remote monitors for elevator, which individually monitor the running statuses of a plurality of elevators provided in a building, the remote monitor system transmitting running status data from the remote monitors via a communal public telephone line to a communal monitoring center, and allowing communication between interphones provided in the elevator carriages and the monitoring center via the public telephone line.
2. Description of the Related Art
Elevators are provided in medium and high-rise buildings, as well as in smaller-scale buildings and private homes, as means for vertical transportation within the building. Elevators for conveying persons and goods must run safely at all times, and, to this end, they are maintained and checked constantly by special maintenance personnel.
An elevator is usually maintained by special maintenance personnel of an elevator maintenance company, but it has recently become possible to monitor the running status of an elevator 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, by using a remote monitoring system via a public telephone line. The running status of the elevator is remotely monitored by the remote monitoring system, and the maintenance personnel visits the site of the elevator only for routine inspections and when there appears to be a danger of an irregularity.
This remote monitoring system constantly monitors the running status of the elevator provided in a building by using a remote monitor, provided in the same building, and transmits various types of collected data along a public network to the monitoring center of an elevator maintenance company. An interphone for emergencies is provided inside the elevator carriage, and passengers can communicate with the staff of the monitoring center of the elevator maintenance company via the interphone and the remote monitor when the elevator stops due to power failure, or when the passengers are stuck inside the elevator carriage.
Data transmitted from a great number of elevators is monitored at the monitoring center, and, when there are signs of irregularity or an accident has been confirmed, the maintenance personnel hurry to the site to confirm and deal with the irregularity.
FIG. 21 shows the schematic constitution of a conventional remote monitoring system of this type. In the remote monitoring system of FIG. 21, a remote monitor. 2 for collecting status data needed in monitoring the elevator, and an elevator controller 4 for controlling the movement of an elevator carriage 3 (up, down, stop, etc.) are provided inside an elevator machine chamber 1. The remote monitor 2 and the elevator controller 4 are connected by a transmission line 5. An interphone 6 and an emergency call button 6A for emergencies are provided in the elevator carriage 3. The elevator controller 4 and the elevator carriage 3 are electrically connected by a tail code 7, and the communications path of the interphone 6 is connected by the tail code 7 to the elevator machine chamber 1.
When an irregularity occurs in the operation of the elevator, a passenger 3A switches ON the emergency call button 6A, provided on the control panel of the elevator carriage, making it possible for the communications path to carry communications from the elevator machine chamber 1 to a mother interphone, provided in the room of a building maintenance officer.
The interphone 6 is an emergency communications device, and, for this reason, an interphone battery 26 is provided in the elevator machine chamber 1 so that the interphone 6 can be used in the event of elevator power failure. A Ni—Cd battery of DC 6V or DC 24V is, for example, used as the interphone battery 26.
The interphone 6 is usually operated by electrical power from the elevator machine chamber 1; when the power fails, the interphone battery 26 guarantees the interphone 6 an operating time of up to approximately thirty minutes.
The various types of data collected by the remote monitor 2 are transmitted via a public telephone line network 8 and a telephone station 8A to a receiver in the monitoring center of an elevator maintenance company 9. The data are stored in data bases for each client, kept at the elevator maintenance company 9. When the data has been transmitted from the remote monitor 2 to the elevator maintenance company 9, information relating to the corresponding building and elevator is immediately displayed on a display at the elevator maintenance company 9.
The remote monitor 2 has three main functions.
The first function of the remote monitor 2 is to enable the passenger 3A to communicate with the monitoring center operator of the elevator maintenance company 9 when the passenger 3A has become trapped in the elevator carriage 3 as a result of accident, power failure, or the like; this eases the anxiety of the passenger 3A and enables him to be rescued rapidly.
The maintenance officer in the building can be contacted by pressing the emergency call button 6A in the elevator carriage 3, but since the interphone 6 allows direct communication with the elevator maintenance company 9 when there is an accident or a power failure, it performs an important role in enabling the passenger 3A to inform the staff at the elevator maintenance company 9 of the circumstances of the accident and the situation of the passengers and to appeal for assistance, and to enable to the elevator maintenance company 9 to calmly inform the passengers 3A of the progress of the rescue, and such like.
The second function of the remote monitor 2 is safety prevention prior to the occurrence of irregularities. The remote monitor 2 constantly receives data relating to the running status of the elevator from the elevator controller 4 via the transmission line 5, and transmits the running status data along the public telephone line network 8 to the elevator maintenance company 9. The elevator maintenance company 9 can identify potential irregularities from changes in the received data, and carry out inspections and overhauls accordingly to prevent accidents, power failures, and the like.
The third function of the remote monitor 2 is to shorten the repair time in the event of an accident. Since data relating to the running status of the elevator is constantly transmitted to the elevator maintenance company 9, the status at the time of an accident can be precisely determined at the elevator maintenance company 9, making it possible to speedily implement countermeasures in a short space of time. As a result, the repair time of the elevator can be shortened.
FIG. 22 is a block line diagram showing the schematic internal constitution of the remote monitor 2. The remote monitor 2 comprises a digital circuit 10 which receives, processes, and stores data from the elevator controller 4 and the elevator maintenance company 9, a telephone line processor 11 which controls transmissions with the public telephone line network 8, a data transmitter 12 which processes data transmissions with the elevator controller 4 and the elevator maintenance company 9, a sound processor 13 which sound-processes transmissions with the interphone 6 provided in the elevator carriage 3 and the public telephone line network 8, and a power section 27 which supplies operating power to the various sections.
The constitution of the digital circuit 10 centers around a CPU 14 of approximately sixteen bits, and also comprises a read-only memory (ROM) 15 for storing programs for the CPU 14, a read/write memory (RAM) 16 for storing data, an electrically deletable ROM (EEROM) 17 for storing used data, a calendar IC for time control 18 for internally generating dates and times, and a digital input/output circuit 33 for processing the I/O of digital data.
A telephone line processor 11 comprises an in-use determining circuit 19 which determines the use status of the public telephone line network 8, a ringing circuit 20 which determines a call sound of a telephone line, a dial circuit 21 for dial transmission, a tone circuit 22 which receives and transmits a push-button signal (PB), and the like, and generally has the same overall constitution as a telephone and a modem. A data transmitter 12 comprises a serial circuit 23 which exchanges data with the elevator controller 4 via a transmission line 5, and a data converter 24 which converts the data so that a connection can be made to the elevator controller 4. A sound processor 13 comprises an amplifier which performs sound matching between the interphone in the elevator carriage 3 and the public telephone line network 8. A power section 27 converts the voltage of a main power (e.g. a dc power circuit which transforms, rectifies, and smoothes, a commercial power voltage) to a dc current suitable for various electronic circuits (e.g. DC 5V), and comprises a main power section 28, and an auxiliary power 29 which guarantees operation of the CPU 14 and the like when the main power fails.
FIG. 23 is a block line diagram showing the internal constitution of the power section 27. The main power section 28 comprises a switching power 28A, and the auxiliary power 29 comprises a battery 29A. The switching power 28A converts the main power voltage to approximately DC 7.2 V (point A), and the battery 29A is charges via a charging resistance 31. The battery 29A is, for example, an Ni—Cd (nickel—cadmium) battery, and comprises six nominal DC 1.2 unit batteries connected in series, resulting in a dc power of DC 7.2 V. The maximum dc current flowing via the charging resistance 31 to the battery 29A is approximately 10 to 20 mA, and the battery 29A is always in a charged state when the main power is being supplied. The output voltage of the switching power 28A passes a DC/DC converter 32 and generates a voltage of DC 5V at the output terminal (point B). Since a voltage of approximately DC 5V is needed to operate electronic circuits such as microcomputers, the DC/DC converter 32 converts the voltage at point A to DC 5V (point B).
When the main power fails, a dc voltage is supplied from the battery 29A to the DC/DC converter 32 via a diode 30, which splits the charging resistance 31, supplying emergency power instead of the main power for a predetermined period, e.g. approximately thirty minutes. This type of charge power constitution is termed “trickle charging”, and is widely used as emergency power.
FIG. 24 is a timing chart for operation during main power failure. When the main power fails, uninterrupted power is supplied from the battery 29A to the point A, enabling the remote monitor to continuously operate as normal. The battery 29A can only continue to supply power for approximately thirty minutes, but there is usually no danger of breakdown, since most power failures last for limited periods of times.
Conventionally, since the battery 29A continues to supply power in the power section 27 of the remote monitor 2 during power failure, in regions where power failures occur frequently, the battery 29A is prematurely exhausted, resulting in a problem the capacity of the battery 29A must be increased to avoid battery exhaustion.
On the other hand, when a plurality of elevators are provided in a single building, the reliability of communications becomes problematic.
In recent years, there are more and more buildings containing a plurality of elevators. In such cases, the remote monitors 2 for the elevators usually share the communal public telephone line 8 in order to reduce costs.
FIG. 25 shows a constitution of this type. In FIG. 25, three remote monitors 2A, 2B, and 2C are provided to monitor three elevators. The remote monitors 2A, 2B, and 2C are provided in correspondence with elevator controllers 4A, 4B, and 4C of each elevator, and share the public telephone line 8. The public telephone line 8 connects to a first remote monitor 2A, but a line/phone terminal (not illustrated in FIG. 25, this is generally used in a conventional modem to connect the modem to the telephone) of the internal telephone line processor 11 is independent, and the public telephone line 8 connects to the line terminal of the telephone line processor 11.
The public telephone line 8 is shared communally by the remote monitors, a telephone line 44 connecting the phone terminal of the remote monitor 2A to the line terminal of the remote monitor 2B, and similarly, a telephone line 45 connecting the phone terminal of the remote monitor 2B to the line terminal of the remote monitor 2C.
According to this constitution, one public telephone line 8 can be shared communally by the remote monitors 2A, 2B, and 2C. Since there is little possibility of transmissions being sent to the monitoring center 38 simultaneously from a plurality of remote monitors, a communal arrangement of this type achieves a problem-free system.
However, since it is not possible to select a specific remote monitor 2 in response to a call from the monitoring center 38 to the remote monitors, various methods have been proposed to solve this drawback.
For example, Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 6-71291 discloses a method for transmitting data from the monitoring center 38 side of an elevator maintenance company 9 to a plurality of remote monitors 2, which share a communal public telephone line 8, wherein an incoming communication sequence is allocated beforehand to the remote monitors 2, and a desired remote monitor 2 is selected from the plurality of remote monitors sharing the communal public telephone line 8 by using an incoming communication stop setting unit, which stops the incoming communication of the remote monitor 2 from the monitoring center 38 side.
According to this method, in accessing a low-ranking sequence remote monitor among the plurality of remote monitors sharing the communal public telephone line 8 from the monitoring center 38, communication to the remote monitors of higher sequence than the selected one is sequentially stopped, preventing them from receiving communications for a predetermined period of time, then transmission is recommenced and the first communication is sent to the desired low-sequence remote monitor. In this case, when the sequential ranking of the desired remote monitor is low, communication to all the monitors above it must be stopped one by one.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-232570 proposes an improvement which enables incoming communications to be stopped in two operations or less, by adding a local communication function between the remote monitors 2 and appending the number of the remote monitor 2 desired by the monitoring center 38 at the time of the first communication.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-1815 proposes a further improvement which makes it possible to give priority to a broken-down remote monitor 2 in transmitting a communication.
Elevator breakdowns range from light malfunctions of little urgency to serious accidents requiring urgent attention. In particular, breakdowns which leave passengers trapped inside the elevator carriage are to be regarded as extremely serious emergencies.
When a breakdown occurs, a passenger 36 inside the elevator carriage 3 presses an emergency call button 34 to notify the monitoring center 38 of the elevator maintenance company 9. This enables normal countermeasures to be carried out.
However, when the passenger 36 inside the elevator carriage 3 wishes to obtain additional information from the staff at the monitoring center 38, a transmission must be sent from the monitoring center 38 to the elevator carriage 3. When this type of situation occurs simultaneously among a plurality of remote monitors 2 sharing the communal public telephone line 8, there is a drawback that time is wasted in making a telephone transmission from the monitoring center 38 of the elevator maintenance company 9 to the remote monitor 2 responsible for that el.
Although the method of providing a local communication function between the plurality of remote monitors 2 solves the problem mentioned above, it has a drawback that there are difficulties in ensuring reliability of the communications between the plurality of remote monitors 2A, 2B, and 2C.